The current “smart grid” initiative using “smart meters” is driving appliance and equipment manufacturers to provide connectivity that can respond to and control the peak energy loads in residential and business settings. Smart meters raise consumer awareness of the cost and impact of electric devices. Such devices typically utilize ZigBee® communication protocol for wireless home area networks relying upon different energy profiles to deliver both energy and other information. As ZigBee® is a relatively low data rate wireless protocol that does not support streaming of content or downloads for remote software updates and applications, WiFi is used complementarily.
For instance, ZigBee is a wireless language connecting different devices to work together. Available ZigBee networks provide a suggested standard for deploying switches, sensors, and controllers using harvested energy in residential, commercial and, industrial environments. The ZigBee networks include a physical radio using IEEE 802.15.4 standard radios operating in a 2.4 GHz band. The proposed ZigBee standard seeks to provide interference avoidance, mesh networking, security, certification, and an open standard.
While smart meters oftentimes assist in the easing of data collection regarding overall dwelling power usage, and may provide empirical data regarding the overall usage of power by a metered building, the smart meter fails to provide any services to monitor and or predict power consumption, potential malfunction, and/or end-of life of an individual power consumer within the dwelling itself.